EWING — Common wisdom holds that it’s usually difficult to beat the same team three times in the same season, and it certainly wasn’t easy for the Ewing High boys basketball team Wednesday night.

The top-seeded Blue Devils were nearly knocked out of the Central Jersey Group III tournament by Patriot Division rival Lawrence before some clutch play down the stretch powered them to a 64-60 win.

“We knew it was going to be a dogfight,” said Ewing junior Trey Lowe, alluding to the two tough games the nine-seed Cardinals the Blue Devils played in the regular season. “We weren’t going to give up, and we were going to play our game. We didn’t want to let them change what we do.”

As the final score suggests, the game hung in the balance until the very end. With just over a minute to play and Ewing up just 60-58, Cardinals big man Jordan Glover came up with a loose ball, and Jahqiel Parkman was able to get a clean look at a 3-pointer on the other end.

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Parkman’s shot just rimmed out, and the ball landed in the hands on Ewing’s Jervon Gregory, who was fouled. Gregory missed the front end on the one-and-one, but the Blue Devils’ Kani Tye was able to come up with a huge rebound and got the ball to Lowe.

Lowe would knock down four foul shots in the final 20 seconds to ice the game.

“We were confident, and for the most part we kept up with them for the whole game,” said Lawrence’s Cameron Kitchen, who finished with 20 points. “It came down to one possession and one rebound, and they executed. We didn’t.”

For much of the game, Kitchen and Glover — who finished with 17 — controlled the paint for the Cardinals, helping their team claw back from an early 13-point deficit. Whenever either got around the basket, it usually resulted in either two points or a trip to the free throw line against the outsized Ewing front line.